One of the major problems in the electronics field is increased heat generation as computing performance increases. The trend toward ever increasing heat dissipation in microprocessor and amplifier based systems, such as those housed in telecommunication cabinets and Cloud Computing centers, is becoming increasingly critical to the electronics industry. Thus, finding effective thermal solutions is a major constraint for the reduction of system cost, time-to-market and performance, three governing factors between success and failure in commercial electronics development and sales.
The problems caused by the increasing heat dissipation are further compounded by the industry trend toward system miniaturization-one of the main methodologies of the electronics industry to satisfy the increasing market demand for faster, smaller, lighter and cheaper electronic devices. The result of this miniaturization is increasing heat fluxes. Also, non-uniform heat flux distribution in electronics may result in peak heat fluxes in excess of 5× the average heat flux over the entire semiconductor chip surface. Under such conditions, integrating advanced heat-spreading and heat-reducing mechanisms into the semiconductor chip are essential. In addition, several refrigeration systems were developed for cooling the entire electronic system or just the heat-generating components therein.
Extensive efforts in the areas of heat sink optimization (including the use of heat pipes) and interface materials development in the past, have resulted in the significant reduction of sink-to-air and package-to-sink thermal resistances. However, the reduction of these two thermal resistances has now begun to approach the physical and thermodynamic limitations of the materials. In addition, prior art thermal transfer approaches, such as the use of AlSiC, CuW and diamond as semiconductor package lid and interface materials, have become inadequate for handling increasing heat dissipation requirements.
Successful cooling technologies must deal with thermal issues at the device, device cluster, printed wiring board, subassembly, and cabinet or rack levels, all of which are within the original equipment manufacturers' (OEM's) products. Many times, the problem is further complicated by the fact that the thermal solution is an “after thought” for the OEM. A new equipment design may utilize the latest software or implement the fastest new semiconductor technology, but the thermal management architecture is generally relegated to the “later phases” of the new product design. The thermal management issues, associated with a designed electronic system, are often solved by the expedient of a secondary cooling or refrigeration system that is arranged in tandem with the electronics system. Indeed, according to some known techniques CPUs' firmware comprises a code embedded therein that prevents the processor approaching its TDP (Thermal Design Point) and thus limits its performance to a significantly lower level than its maximized design level. However, in some other techniques, the CPU utilizes an Extended Frequency Range (XFR) feature, which automatically overclocks chips to their maximum potential, based entirely on how good the cooling is.
Further, many techniques for transporting live organs, tissues, pharmaceuticals or any other entity, component or ingredient needed to be cooled during transport, have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,673,594 describes an organ transport device having a perfusion capability. However, most devices either use cooling elements such as dry ice or require large scale refrigerating means that consume large amount of electricity and takes up a lot of space. In addition, standard active thermal management systems involve high pressure environment therein, which require special piping, connectors and sealants, which might burst at ambient pressure lower than 1 atm., such as during flight.